Interesting books, and news items about books and periodicals, particularly with respect to political and social issues. Since May, 2016, many of my larger book reviews have been put on a hosted Wordpress site; so now this blog emphasizes previews, interviews with authors, booklets, large periodical articles, and literary business issues. Note: no one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

Sunday, February 07, 2016

Publishers of tabloid books in Hong Kong seem to be kidnapped by Chinese authorities; business model used to be common in the US

The New York Times, in a detailed “Sunday Business” article by Michael Forsythe and Andrew Jacobs, “The Disappearing Publishers” (online, “In China, Books that Make Money, and Enemies”) explains the business of several publishers who seem to have been kidnapped from Hong Kong, Thailand, and possibly Vietnam. Their operation was to hire writers to mass produce articles ad narratives that sound comparable to US supermarket tabloids, many of them ridiculing Chinese political or corporate leadershhip. They would be sold mainly in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, and then often physically carried back to mainland China by consumers.

What caught my eye was that in the US, in the past, “pornography” novels were often mass produced in “shops” of hired writers, especially in New York and LA, in the days that print pornography on some newsstands was popular, before the Internet. The companies tended to hire people in the cities struggling to meet ends meet (especially in the Village, in the early days after Stonewall as gay rights still had a long way to go).

Links

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Tracking Codes

Privacy Policy

p> Privacy Policy for billsbookreviews.blogspot.com

If you require any more information or have any questions about my privacy policy, please feel free to contact me by email at JBoushka@aol.com.

At billsbookreviews.blogspot.com , the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to me. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by billsbookreviews.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files Like many other Web sites, billsbookreviews.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons billsbookreviews.blogspot.com does not use cookies.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on billsbookreviews.blogspot.com .
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to billsbookreviews.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following link.

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on my site. My advertising partners include ....... Google Adsense

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on billsbookreviews.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

billsbookreviews.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. billsbookreviews.blogspot.com 's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Especially for EU visitors: This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. For more info visit https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/